1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, more particularly, to the construction and mounting of a handle to the door of a refrigerator.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Although refrigerator handles which are generally recessed with respect to front panels of doors are known, the clear majority of the refrigerators on the market today are provided with handles which are attached to and project from the front panels. The projecting portions of the handles define zones which can be gripped by a user to open or close the refrigerator doors. Often, such a known refrigerator handle is secured solely to a respective front door panel, generally by securing a base plate to the door panel, then securing a handle to the base plate, and finally attaching a cover strip to the handle. Another known handle arrangement has one end portion of a handle secured directly to the front door panel, with an opposing end of the handle extending across and being secured to an in-turned top portion of the door.
In order to reduce costs and often times increase the aesthetics of refrigerator handles, it is heretofore been proposed to form handles from plastic. In such situations, it must be realized that refrigerator handles actually need to withstand a fair level of fatigue loading that can loosen mounting screws and even cause a handle to crack. To address at least these concerns, there exists a need in the art for a refrigerator handle mounting arrangement, particularly for refrigerator handles formed from plastic, which establishes a relatively large mounting or clamping surface, and minimizes the placement of the plastic in the mounting zone in tension, thereby promoting reliability in the overall mounting of the handle.
The present invention is directed to the mounting of an end portion of a refrigerator handle to an in-turned upper portion of a refrigerator door. More specifically, the handle includes a main body portion that extends along the front panel of the refrigerator door, with the main body portion leads through a curved section to a terminal end portion which is adapted to be secured to the in-turned upper portion of the door through the use of mechanical fasteners, such as screws. In accordance with the invention, the terminal end portion is formed with tie-down flanges which define a channel at the terminal end portion.
In a preferred embodiment, the handle, particularly the terminal end portion, is molded of plastic such that the tie-down flanges are integrally formed as part of the remainder of the terminal end portion and, most preferably, the entire handle. The mounting assembly also incorporates a metal plate which slips into the channel and receives the mechanical fasteners such that the fasteners extend into the terminal end portion of the plastic handle, through the metal plate, and into the door. With this arrangement, the metal plate functions to clamp down the tie-down flanges to the door when the fasteners are tightened.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the drawing wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views.